Tuesday, September 9, 2025 - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sided with US President Donald Trump’s administration, allowing federal agents to continue immigration raids in Southern California that critics say rely heavily on race, ethnicity, or language.
The decision puts on hold a lower court ruling that had
restricted federal agents from stopping or detaining individuals without
“reasonable suspicion” of being in the country illegally. The order, issued by
Los Angeles-based District Judge Maame Frimpong in July, found that the raids
likely violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches
and seizures.
The Supreme Court’s brief order, issued without explanation,
allows the administration to resume operations while the case proceeds. The
court’s three liberal justices dissented sharply, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor
warning that the policy risks treating “all Latinos, U.S. citizens or not, who
work low-wage jobs” as targets for detention. “Rather than stand idly by while
our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent,” she wrote.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh, concurring with the
majority, argued that ethnicity alone cannot establish reasonable suspicion but
could be considered alongside other factors. “If the officers learn that the
individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United
States, they promptly let the individual go,” he noted.
The Justice Department defended the raids, saying they are
based on a “reasonably broad profile” in regions where undocumented residents
make up a significant portion of the population.
The ruling is the latest in a series of victories for Trump
at the Supreme Court, which has a 6–3 conservative majority. Since returning to
office last year, Trump has pledged record-level deportations, with his
administration setting a goal of 3,000 daily arrests. The raids, often
involving masked and armed federal agents, have sparked fear in immigrant
communities, fueled protests, and triggered multiple lawsuits.
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